SENIOR CROWN SR-71

Developed for the USAF as reconnaissance aircraft more than 30 years ago, SR-71s are still the world's fastest and highest-flying production aircraft. The aircraft can fly more than 2200 mph (Mach 3+ or more than three times the speed of sound) and at altitudes of over 85,000 feet.

For its reconnaissance mission, the aircraft was outfitted with an advanced synthetic aperture radar system [ASARS-I], an optical bar camera and a technical objective camera wet film system. All were once part of the aircraft's original equipment.

The SR-71 was designed by a team of Lockheed personnel led by Clarence
"Kelly" Johnson, at that time vice president of the company's Advanced
Development Projects, known as the "Skunk Works."
The first version, a CIA reconnaissance aircraft that first flew in April 1962 was called the A-11. Upon retrofitting with J-58 engine, it was designated the A-12. An interceptor version was developed in 1963 under the designation YF-12A. A USAF reconnaissance variant, called the SR-71, was first flown in 1964. The A-12 and SR-71 designs included leading and trailing edges made of high-temperature fiberglass-asbestos laminates which among other features contributed to their reduced radar signature.
Its existence
was publicly announced by President Lyndon Johnson on Feb. 29, 1964,
when he announced that an SR-71 had flown at sustained speeds of over
2000 mph during tests at Edwards, Calif.

Development of the SR-71s from the A-11 design, as strategic
reconnaissance aircraft, began in February 1963. First flight of an
SR-71 was on Dec. 22, 1964. The YF-12s were experimental long-range interceptor versions of the
same airframe and were first displayed publicly at Edwards on Sept.
30, 1964.

The Air Force needed technical assistance to get the latest reconnaissance version of the A-12 family, the SR-71A, fully operational. Eventually, the Air Force offered NASA the use of two YF-12A aircraft, 60-6935 and 606936. A joint NASA-USAF program was mapped out in June 1969.
The NASA YF-12 research program was ambitious; the aircraft flew an average of once a week unless down for extended maintenance or modification. It made 90 flights between 16 July 1971 and 22 December 1978.

The SR-71 is a delta-wing aircraft designed and built by Lockheed.
They are powered by two Pratt and Whitney J-58 axial-flow turbojets
with afterburners, each producing 32,500 pounds of thrust. Studies
have shown that less than 20 percent of the total thrust used to fly
at Mach 3 is produced by the basic engine itself. The balance of the
total thrust is produced by the unique design of the engine inlet and
"moveable spike" system at the front of the engine nacelles, and by
the ejector nozzles at the exhaust which burn air compressed in the
engine bypass system.

The Blackbird weighs about 34 tons empty, and can carry
another 20 tons of special JP-7 jet fuel (enough for about two
hours of flight time) in its fuselage and wing tanks. In flight,
the fuel is redistributed automatically to maintain the plane's
center of gravity and load specifications. Because the Blackbird was designed to expand during flight, it has had a history of fuel tank
leaks on the ground.

The airframes are built almost entirely of titanium and titanium
alloys to withstand heat generated by sustained Mach 3 flight.
The aircraft's largely titanium structure is coated with a special radar-absorbing black
paint that also helps dissipate the intense frictional heat resulting
from flight through the atmosphere at faster than three times
the speed of sound. It also gives the plane its distinctive
"Blackbird" nickname.
Aerodynamic control surfaces consist of all-moving vertical tail
surfaces above each engine nacelle, ailerons on the outer wings, and
elevators on the trailing edges between the engine exhaust nozzles.

Although most news reports characterize the SR-71 aircraft as `radar evading', in point of fact, however, the SR-71 was one of the largest radar targets ever detected on the FAA's long-range radars. The FAA was able to track it at ranges of several hundred miles. The explanation offered was that the radars were detecting the exhaust plume.

The SR-71A accommodates two crew members in tandem
cockpits. The pilot flies the aircraft from the forward
cockpit, while a systems operator monitors sensors and
experiments in the rear station. For high-speed, high altitude
missions, both crew members must wear full-pressure suites
that resemble those worn by the early astronauts.

Congress appropriated $100 million in the fiscal year 1995 defense budget to reactivate
two A-model jets and one B-model pilot trainer aircraft. The Air Force program office for the reactivation of the Blackbirds is at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. They are operated by Air Combat Command

The move to reactivate the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft was not unopposed. Critics
looked at the SR-71 's limitations -- it can effectively operate only in good weather and
cannot transmit the images it collects directly to those who need them -- and concluded
that the aircraft should be retired.

Correction: "The two reactivated SR-71 Blackbirds (1995-1998) were equipped with all-weather day/night ASARS-1 radar imaging 'downloadable' to any military ground station, and an electro-optical digital imaging camera (a modified TEOC), similar to the U-2 SYSERS, which also could downlink to any ground station. It also could carry traditional film, so it could carry 3 different imagery collection systems each mission, 2 which were NRT. It was a targeteer's perfect look-shoot-look intelligence platform." -- Colonel Joe Reich, USAF (Ret), Senior Intelligence Officer, SR-71 Reactivation Team, 1995-98